傳法正宗記 1.5

1.5

Your subject now has the monk Qisong of Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou presenting a petition to your subject, stating that the ancestral lineage transmitting the Dharma in the Chan gate is not yet clearly distinct, and that shallow scholars of the doctrinal gates cling to their respective records, giving rise to much contention past and present. Consequently, he investigated the sūtras and treatises of the Tripiṭaka and obtained a full account of the origins and developments of the Chan lineage's patriarchs. He thereupon excised redundancies and extracted the essentials, composing the Chuanfa zhengzong ji in twelve fascicles, together with a painted ancestral chart in one scroll, to rectify the errors of past records; alongside this, he includes one set in three volumes of the printed edition of his previously composed Fujiao bian and a sealed memorial to Your Majesty, seeking no imperial favors whatsoever, and begging your subject to forward them. Your subject has paid rough attention to the Buddhist teaching; observing his editorial revisions and literary compositions, they are certainly not arbitrary opinions, but rather quite refined and subtle. In the leisure moments amidst Your Majesty's myriad affairs, you deeply attain the joy of the Dharma; I pray that you grant them an imperial glance. If there is anything worthy of adoption, I beg that they be sent down to the Secretariat for examination, so that they may be specially cataloged into the Tripiṭaka; awaiting imperial determination.